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Rave reviews for Barley + another Cannes best actor prize prediction

19 May 2006 at 08:16 PM | by Melty_Girl

[Note: This was originally published by cillianONLINE, which has been inactive since September 2006.]

Predictably, there are some reviewers who fear the political content in a Ken Loach film, and some who do not appreciate his down-to-earth, humanistic approach. One example of this can be found in the review from the bottom line oriented Variety. While reviewer Derek Elley notes that "the gleaming-eyed Murphy holds the screen," he writes that,

[The] essentially small-scale pic lacks the involving sweep of Loach's earlier historical-political yarn, Land and Freedom, and looks likely to reap only modest returns in general arenas.

On the other hand, Dave Calhoun's Time Out (London) review is an unqualified rave:

The Wind that Shakes the Barley proves to be a moving and intelligent historical play that explores divisions on the left on an intimate level and succeeds in presenting the prevalent ideas of the time without ever losing sight of the personal stories that Loach and his regular screenwriter Paul Laverty have decided to explore. ...Most tricky for Loach is presenting the complex arguments within the republican movement that followed the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and led to the political split that very soon saw the outbreak of war. He succeeds, and masters some compelling group scenes of debate and argument that never feel awkward or staged. I wouldn't be surprised if the film picks up prizes come the end of the festival, most likely for Murphy as best actor or even Laverty as best screenwriter.

Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere also praises Barley highly:

I enjoyed and respected Neil Jordan's Michael Collins ('96), which dealt with the same period in Irish history, but it delivered a moderately slick Irish-Hollywood sensibility...whereas Loach's film smacks of visual simplicity and the cultural real deal.